History Main / MercifulMinion

* In the Arlong arc of ''OnePiece'', Nami pretends to stab Usopp to save him from the Fishmen.

* In ''{{Luther}}'', Ian Reed pretends to be a dirty cop to get to a ritual killer for the protagonist. Painfully subverted later, though.
* In ''TheMentalist'' a child witnesses a murder on the orders of a criminal, who then orders one of his henchmen to kill the kid. Said henchman instead asks his relative to take the kid in. The criminal, showing a shocking lack of GenreSavvy, tries to order a different henchman to carry out the deed later and is flat out refused.

[[quoteright:187:[[{{Sinfest}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SinfestMercifulMinion_949.JPG]]]]

* In ''{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4301 despite Satan's orders]], [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4315 the green succubus can't bring herself to abandon the enlightened drones]], but [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4328 brings them home.]]

* In ''HotFuzz'', Danny faked stabbing Nick in order to prevent the Neighborhood Watch Alliance from killing him for real.

* In the first full ''CiaphasCain'' novel a riot breaks out on the ship he's assigned to. In the aftermath he can't have anyone executed (since it would destroy morale, and more importantly make him likely to suffer an [[UnfriendlyFire "accident"]] on the battlefield) but the captain wants blood (he was in a relationship with one of the military police killed in the riot). So Cain lets the captain hold a tribunal (the defendants of which are found guilty) and sentences them to "death" by transferring them to a penal legion to die in battle.

* ''[[DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight]]'': Kyle is stranded after a crash landing and at the mercy of [[TheDragon Sariss]]. When she raises her lightsaber to strike him, [[spoiler: Yun, the youngest of the Dark Jedi and [[IOweYouMyLife the one Kyle spared]], [[TakingTheBullet takes]] [[ThwartedCoupDeGrace the hit]]]].

* JadeEmpire: The Emperor ordered Sun Li's family killed. The Lotus Assassins did their duty...save one. [[spoiler: Sagacious Zu balked at having to kill a newbown and decided to smuggle the infant Dawn Star out of the palace and hide her]]. We also have a case with Sun Li himself sparing the PlayerCharacter as the rest of the Spirit Monks were slaughtered. [[spoiler: But this is a subversion. He was planning all along to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] the GenocideBackfire trope and set you up as a LaserGuidedTykebomb to kill his enemies so he could take over!]]

* {{Anime/Gankutsuou}}: Baptistan finds Albert sleeping at the count's doorstep after trying to find him and confront him over recent betrayals. Instead of kicking him out, he wakes him up, and sends him off, later giving him a communicator, [[spoiler: and saving him with Bertuccio. At the end of the series, Bertuccio defies a direct order to kill Albert, realizing that the count has gone too far.]]

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* In the Arlong arc of ''OnePiece'', Nami pretends to stab Usopp to save him from the Fishmen.

* In ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Draco refuses to admit the prisoner was Harry. Later, Narcissa crosses this trope with DeathFakedForYou and tells Voldemort that Harry is dead.

* Xanth Filatine from ''TheEdgeChronicles''. As a part of his HeelFaceTurn, he shoots the rope tethering the protagonist's ship instead of into Rook himself, allowing Rook to flee from the [[{{Mook}} Mooks]] swiftly closing on his location.

* ''[[DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight]]'': Kyle is stranded after a crash landing and at the mercy of [[TheDragon Sariss]]. When she raises her lightsaber to strike him, [[spoiler: Yun, the youngest of the Dark Jedi and [[IOweYouMyLife the one Kyle spared]], [[TakingTheBullet takes the hit]]]].

* ''[[DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight]]'': Kyle is stranded after a crash landing and at the mercy of [[TheDragon Sariss]]. When she raises her lightsaber to strike him, [[spoiler: Yun, the youngest of the Dark Jedi and [[IOweYouMyLife the one Kyle spared]], [[TakingTheBullet takes the hit]]]].

[[quoteright:187:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SinfestMercifulMinion_949.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:187:Those PuppyDogEyes]]

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/97wateroflife.html The Water Of Life]]'', the older brothers steal the water and put salt water in the youngest son's bottle, so that they heal their father, who thinks the youngest is trying to poison him. He sends a huntsman to kill him, in the woods, but the huntsman warns the prince and lets him escape.
** In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/moreenglish/kingengland.html The King of England and his Three Sons]]'', it's apples instead of water, but the same rule.
* In CharlesPerrault's ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'', the king leaves his wife and children with his mother, who proceeds to try to eat them. The cook substitutes other animals and hides them.
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/stories/biancabella.html Biancabella and the Snake]]'', her stepmother-in-law has minions take her to the wood with orders to bring back her hands and eyes as proof.

* In ''LesMiserables'' the situation is reversed, with the heroic revolutionaries deciding to execute the spy InspectorJavert. Jean Valjean requests that he be allowed to execute him personally as a reward for his services in the defence of the barricade. He takes him out of sight, fires a pistol into the ground and tells Javert to run.

* In the ''{{Thundercats 2011}}'' episode "Omens Part One" Lion-O shows mercy to two [[StockPunishment stockaded]] Lizard prisoners by [[PleaseSpareHimMyLiege convincing his father]] to set them free. In "Part Two", one of the two Lizards [[AndroclesLion repays the favor]] during the Lizard invasion, by smuggling the key to Lion-O and Tygra's cell [[JailBake in some soup]] when they're LockedInTheDungeon, allowing them to escape.

* SnowWhite's evil stepmother ordered a huntsman to kill Snow White and bring her heart back as proof. He leaves her in the woods instead, and brought back the heart of a deer.

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* In the Arlong arc of ''OnePiece'', Nami pretends to stab Usopp to save him from the Mermen.

* In ''LesMiserables'' Jean does this to InspectorJavert when the latter's caught by revolutionaries (Jean requests to kill him himself, takes him a way away, fires the pistol into the ground and tells him to run).

* In ''{{Luther}}'', Ian Reed pretends to be a dirty cop to get to a ritual killer for for the protagonist. Painfully subverted later, though.